The ancient chamber hummed with an energy that made my skin crawl. Black candles flickered around us, casting long shadows that seemed to move of their own accord. Isabella's hand in mine was my only anchor to reality as we stood before the obsidian altar.
"It's time," I said, my voice echoing off the stone walls.
Isabella squeezed my hand, her face solemn but determined. "Together, Alaric. Whatever comes."
Elara moved around us, placing the seven recovered artifacts in a perfect circle on the altar—the dagger of binding, the crystal eye, the serpent scale amulet, the bone flute, the silver mirror, the black vial, and at the center, the heart stone that glowed with an inner fire.
"The alignment is nearly perfect," she murmured, eyes on the ceiling where an aperture revealed a sliver of night sky. "Once the moonlight touches the heart stone, you must begin."
